Perhaps binding the whole year's _Punches_ would
be the best plan; and then we need not label it 'Sermons in Lent,' or
'Tracts on Homoeopathy,' but you may write inside, as Dr. Buckland did
on his umbrella, 'Stolen from Dr. Livingstone.' We really enjoy them
very much. They are good against fever. The 'Essence of Parliament,' for
instance, is capital. One has to wade through an ocean of paper to get
the same information, without any of the fun. And by the time the
newspapers have reached us, most of the interest in public matters has
evaporated."]
But the lake slave-trade was going on at a dismal rate. An Arab dhow was
seen on the lake, but it kept well out of the way. Dr. Livingstone was
informed by Colonel Rigdy, late British Consul at Zanzibar, that 19,000
slaves from this Nyassa region alone passed annually through the
custom-house there. This was besides those landed at Portuguese slave
ports. In addition to those captured, thousands were killed or died of
their wounds or of famine, or perished in other ways, so that not
one-fifth of the victims became slaves--in the Nyassa district probably
not one-tenth.
Pages:
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597